"Without education, we are weaker economically. Without economic power, we are weaker in terms of national security. No great military power has ever remained so without great economic power."

"The power of the American system of republicanism lies in its capacity to allow religious belief to be a competing, not a controlling, factor in American life."

"It's possible that the 2012 general-election race will be the least overtly religious one since 1972, the last campaign before Roe v. Wade and the rise of Jimmy Carter brought evangelicalism into the political mainstream. That's because faith remains a complicated issue for Obama, who is still wrongly thought to be a Muslim in some quarters."

"It would be great if politics were fact-based, but it is not, and it is surely not nuance-based. What works in a classroom or a think tank does not work on Capitol Hill or in the White House. Obama sometimes seems to be running the Brookings Institution, not the country."

"I have to do more close research and fact checking for the science fiction. This is not however to say that writing good fantasy does not involve doing good research."

"Hope lies in dreams, in imagination, and in the courage of those who dare to make dreams into reality."

"You have to be willing to accept the idea that people may think you're stupid."

"Some people are your relatives but others are your ancestors, and you choose the ones you want to have as ancestors. You create yourself out of those values."